Pregnancy test a positive result for visually impaired

AN IRISH product designer has created the first pregnancy test of its kind that allows visually impaired women to read their own result.

- BY CIARA O'LOUGHLIN

Leah Shanahan has designed the world’s first saliva-based fully accessible and multisensory pregnancy test.

Instead of needing sight to view the result, AMY has touch and sight options so that women can find out this intimate news without the help of anyone else.

The Kerry woman created the product as her final year project as a design and technology graduate with the University of Limerick.

Using photosensor technology, a raised plus or minus symbol on the reader can be felt by touch.

Users can also choose to hear the result aloud, and those who are partially sighted can use their phone to open a webpage with a bold red or green symbol.

Leah, who is partially sighted herself, decided to create the product when she realised blind women were the only group excluded from the intimate moment of discovering their own pregnancy.